The Unexpected Photography Phenomena
by Kawaii Stella
Summary: Allison was your average art student. Then she was asked on a university tour of the arts all along the west coast. Little does she know that her trip will turn into more that an art competition. Especially when she meets four geniuses.


A/N: Hey guys! I'm glad to present the newest addition to my fanfic collection. This is my first Big Bang Theory fanfiction though I've been watching the show for a while now. I started this fic on Easter and the next day I found out that Johnny Galecki, the actor who portrays Leonard on the show, actually has a little sister named Allison. I didn't know that when I created my characters. Funny, huh? Okay, I hope you enjoy this first chapter, I know that it's a little bit mundane, but the next chapter will have the adventure starting.

The Unexpected Photography Phenomena

Kawaii Stella

Chapter One

Kansas to California

"Okay guys, you're the best we have to offer from our small but proud high school." Photography teacher Sean Heinz addressed his star photography students.

All two of them.

"So… what are we going to be doing, exactly?" Lee asked.

Lee was skeptical that she and her fellow classmate would be going to some big universities to show their art. Not that their art wasn't good, it was, but what was the point? They did very well in local and regional shows. However, that was due to the fact that most of the schools around the region were about the same size: around five to seven hundred students max. These university shows were going to host almost fifty or more schools with an average size of about sixteen hundred students.

"You and Miss Allison will each embark on a tour of several universities to display your art and to gain inspiration for your future works." Mr. Heinz said.

"Where will be going first?" Allison asked.

"That's the thing…" Mr. Heinz began.

'Oh boy, here we go,' both Lee and Allison thought simultaneously.

"You will be going alone to separate coasts to begin with. One of you will go to the west coast, one of you to the east. This is a nationwide show."

"Nationwide? Why didn't you tell us this earlier! We could've had so many more pieces ready to go if we'd even just had a week's warning!" Allison said, exasperated.

"You won't leave for another two weeks so you both will have plenty of time to get as many new works done as you can. You both need at least thirty pieces to compete, which is well within your reach, so I expect you both to go with at least forty each."

"Alright, so which one of us goes where?" Lee asked.

"I propose you draw to determine that." Mr. Heinz said. He took two post-it notes wrote east on one and west on the other. Then he folded them several times in the same fashion before putting them into his Ducks Unlimited ball cap and shaking it unceremoniously. "Okay ladies, which one of you would like to draw?"

"It doesn't matter to me," Allison offered.

"Me either," Lee chimed in.

"Come on girls, step up the plate here!"

Allison and Lee exchanged a wary look.

"Fine, then. Al, you spoke up first so pick a note, any note!"

Allison laughed and rolled her eyes as she reached into the ball cap and drew out a yellow post-it. She unfolded it to discover her destination.

"West," Allison announced.

"Great! That means you, Lee, will be going to the east coast. I have the information packets here for each of you." Mr. Heinz said as he handed over the packets. "You'll each start north on your respective coasts and head south from there. I think each of you have ten universities to visit over the summer. You'll spend about a week or so at each before moving to the next. Don't worry; you'll have plenty of time to sightsee." Mr. Heinz said as the bell rang, claiming school was done for the week. "Ok, so next week get to matting your best and get some new photographs if you can over the weekend. Have a great weekend girls!"

"You too!" Lee and Allison said as the left the classroom.

"Wow, a costal tour," Allison said over the roar of students running towards the nearest exit, eager to start their weekend.

"I know. We're finally going to get our art out there. I hope we do alright. We've never competed outside of the state before." Lee mused.

"We just have to be confident, I guess. We're going to be going from the center of the country all the way to its edges. 'Make Midway High proud!" Chuckled Allison.

"Allison, I know I've only been here a few years now, but I never found out why we were called Midway. We live in Dogwood, so wouldn't you think the school would be named after the town?"

"You'd imagine but living here in Dogwood, Kansas, we're straight in the middle of Tornado Alley. Therefore, we are the Midway Twisters. Tempting fate a little, aren't we?"

"I'd say! There have been a lot of close calls here though."

"Sure have. Well, I'll see you later, Lee!" Allison called as she got on the bus that would drop her off at the top of her road.

From the top of her road it was a quarter mile hike to her home. The late blooms on the dogwood trees were beginning to fall as it was close to summer's start. The dogwood trees were abundant thus giving the town its name. Allison ambled down the road, spotting the occasional rabbit bouncing around its den. Her house was out by itself, which suited Allison just fine. No nosy neighbors to bug her or her mother. After just a few minutes of walking, Allison smiled as her house came into view. Even though it was just her and her mom, they had a pretty nice farm house. White, small, one story and cozy; it was the house Allison had lived in her whole life. She could spot the underground storm cellar door that she had painted a mural on just a month ago. Allison spotted her mother's car, a bright red Honda Prelude, straight from the 1990's. Old, but well taken care of, the car looked good as new. Allison loved the car to no end. What took her off guard was the shiny black fairly new sedan right behind it.

Allison didn't have to be a theoretical physicist to figure out who it was. True, she hadn't seen the car before, but a car like that in this area was a rarity. The black Audi was property of the one who paid her child support, which would run dry in a few months when she turned 18, her father.

'Why is he here?' Allison wondered in her head. 'Dad hardly ever visits. A birthday here, a milestone there, a few letters or e-mails in between. Maybe it isn't him…"

Allison hurried up the three steps and opened the screen door.

"Mom? I'm home." Allison called.

"In the living room sweetheart." Her mother called.

Allison entered the living room, where she found her mother sitting by herself in the love seat with her father in the chair. Allison plopped her book bag down just inside the entryway of the room before sitting beside her mother.

"Hello, Allison. My how you've grown!" Edward Hofstadter greeted his daughter.

"Hi Dad."

"Sweetie, your dad's here to talk to you about why we're not together. We feel that since you're almost eighteen, you're ready to hear the whole story."

"Oh, okay," Allison said. What else was there to say?

"It was a hard time for me, Allison," he father began. "I was having a hard time with my wife at the time. With three kids and that monotonic, erm, I mean, their mother, I needed to get out. It was 1993 and I had separated from my now ex-wife. I visited a university in Topeka, a huge change from New Jersey let me tell you, and that's where I met your mother. She was finishing up her degree in business management and was at a local café that rainy night. She was sitting at a corner table, sketching some magnolias, I think."

"Hydrangeas, actually," Olivia Finch corrected.

"Hydrangeas," Edward corrected. "I asked to sit next to her and she allowed it. She took to this old anthropologist and one thing led to another…" Edward moved from the chair to sit next to his daughter. "And before I knew it I was the father of this beautiful little girl." He finished by putting his arm around Allison's shoulder. "You're awfully quiet, honey. What's on your mind?"

"Can we go for a walk, Dad?" Allison asked quietly.

"Of course."

Allison and her father made their way around the edge of the farm.

"So I have three half siblings?"

"Yes, two brothers and a sister."

"What do they do?"

"Well the oldest daughter and youngest son still live in New Jersey. She is a medical researcher and he is a law professor."

"Impressive," Allison said as she simultaneously thought. "Sounds incredibly boring."

"Yes, my middle son is an experimental physicist."

"That sounds cool! What's his name?"

"Leonard. Now, let me learn about you, Allison. I barely know you. I'm sorry that I've not been in your life as much as I should've been, but I'm going to change that starting now. I want to know about my baby girl. God, you're almost eighteen now. I remember the first time I got to hold you. You were three weeks old and those bright eyes of yours were already taking everything in. Observing everything like it was a piece of art."

"Maybe that's why I love being an artist so much."

"Most likely. What medium do you prefer?"

"Photography is my favorite. I actually just got invited to a west coast university tour of the arts today. It's this big series of art shows and competitions that span part of the summer. I'll get to go to ten different universities, I think, and display forty or more of my works."

"That's great Allison! Do you have any of your pieces here at home with you? I'd love to see them! Have you told your mother this yet?"

"No, not yet. I just found out about this today. And yeah, I have a lot of pieces in my room. I'll get them when we go back in."

"Allison, Edward, I have dinner ready if you're interested!" Olivia called from the screen door.

The father and daughter had been inattentive to the time that had passed, and the angle of the setting sun clearly showed that it was in fact dinnertime. The three gathered at the old kitchen table where they all consumed a meal. Allison announced her tour to her mother, and Olivia was so proud. Edward left after giving a warm hug to his daughter promising to maintain more contact with her. The next day, Allison got to work on getting all of her photographs together as well as taking new ones before getting the new ones printed at the local print shop. Before she knew it, it was Monday again.

"So three siblings… wow." Lee said as she and Allison measured their photographs for matting.

"I know. The oldest and youngest sound boring, but the middle one, not so much; he's an experimental physicist."

"Impressive. Does he live in New Jersey too?"

"I don't know, Dad never said."

"How's it going ladies?" Mr. Heinz called.

"Good Heinz!" Both called.

"Good, good! I know next Monday is the last exam day and neither of you are required to take your finals this semester, but I'd like you two to come in so we can go over both of your schedules for the tour. This is a big deal, girls."

The two agreed to come in on the following Monday and were briefed on their transportation plans, paid in full by the artists society to both Allison and Lee's surprise. Every detail was smoothed out, to when their orientations at each university would take place, the meal schedules, housing (which was very lenient as the girls were given funds for their own housing which meant if they stayed in a discount hotel, they could pocket the rest of the cash), and what they could take with them. (Allison was assured that her musical instruments would be safely delivered to each location) After the meeting they left for home, to pack for their adventures. Their art had been sent ahead of them, as had other things like the majority of clothes and other personal items. The cool part was that they would be flying private; again paid for by the Art Society.

On the night before Allison's departure, her mother came into her room with a beautifully wrapped box.

"Mom, what's up? It's already 10:30."

"Oh, I just wanted to give you this," Olivia said as she handed her daughter the box.

The box was wrapped in a paper giving the image of a field of wildflowers with butterflies flitting about. A sheer pink ribbon was tied around the box in a bow. Allison carefully untied the bow then removed the paper and opened the box. Out from it came another, smaller box, and a photo album.

"Mom, thank you! This album is huge!"

"You're welcome, sweetheart. I wanted to give this to you now so you could fill it in with pictures of all the places you'll go on your trip so I can see them when you get home. That leads to the next box. Go on, open it up." Olivia said with a smile.

In the smaller box there were several gift cards and one more, small box. An iTunes card, a card for printing photos, ones for shopping, and one for her favorite diner chain were all included in the second box.

"I have to keep my baby supplied," was what Olivia said in response to her daughter's babbling surprise.

In the last box was a string of pearls.

"Mom, are these…?"

"One of the strings of pearls that you grandma gave me when I went out on my own and the same her mother gave to her that her mother had passed down, yes. These came from the group that your great-great-grandfather gave to her when they still lived in Italy, right after they were married, I think. There are three strands to the set, and all stay in the family."

"Grandma has one and so do you…and now, me. I can't believe they were Nanna's! They are so old but look almost new."

"We take good care of them. Now you will be able to join us in our cleaning tradition where we all take them to the jewelers to be maintained."

Allison continually thanked her mother until finally Olivia made her daughter go to sleep. The next day was a big one. In the morning Allison dressed in a sensible pair of black Converse, dark jeans, and a light blue blouse she paired with her new pearls. She was so nervous she could barely eat anything her mother placed in front of her. Time dragged on as she waited to be driven to the airport with the remainder of her things. Helpers from the Art Society loaded her things aside from her purse and backpack. The jet took off and before she knew it she was snapping pictures from above Seattle. The Space Needle instantly grabbed the focus of her camera. She checked in and paid for her hotel room then set up. Soon after she was whisked to her first orientation. As soon as that was done she was taken to set up in her section of the photography gallery. Over the next week she was judged, critiqued, awarded on her work, and amazed to no end. Some pieces were awarded individually while a couple of times her whole portfolio was awarded as a collection. Allison made sure she got pictures of her works with their awards for her album. She hoped that Lee was having as good of luck as she was

Then, as quickly as her first stop began, it was over. And the whole shebang started again at another college. Some universities were friendlier in judging than others. After what seemed like a long, tiring, journey, she arrived at her last college, commonly called Caltech. That was where her big journey began.


End file.
